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Cardinal Wilton Gregory of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., blesses the newly unveiled “National Life Monument” on the campus of The Catholic University of America’s Theological College on May 17, 2023. / Peter Pinedo|CNA

Washington D.C., May 17, 2023 / 15:58 pm (CNA).

The new “National Life Monument,” a larger-than-life bronze sculpture depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary pregnant with the Christ Child, was unveiled and dedicated today on the campus of The Catholic University of America’s Theological College in Washington, D.C.

According to the Canadian artist Timothy Paul Schmalz, the statue, titled “Advent,” is meant to be a symbol of beauty, a celebration of new life, and a bold pro-life statement in the nation’s capital.

Schmalz was present at the dedication ceremony along with the archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Wilton Gregory, and Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet. Gregory prayed over the monument, giving a special blessing to the statue and those present for the dedication.

Gregory praised the monument, saying, “Advent, as a pregnant Madonna, transcends bronze, revealing a deeper significance, deeper truths of God and of us, and his love for each of us, graced as we are in his image and likeness.”

The statue is entirely bronze except for the Blessed Virgin’s womb, which is made of reflective stainless steel. The Virgin Mother lovingly cradles her womb in which Jesus is depicted as an unborn baby. Our Lady is portrayed with a serene and peaceful countenance as she holds the Christ Child in her womb. The steel, which Schmalz describes as a “mystical material,” forms a type of halo around the unborn Christ Child.

“The hope with this sculpture is bringing a permanent, physical symbol that says ‘yes’ to life, that says life is great,” Schmalz told CNA. “To have it here in the nation’s capital is making a powerful statement. It’s saying that we have to celebrate all human life, and all human life is splendid and wonderful, and it’s mystical.”

Crafting a pro-life sculpture was something like solving a riddle, Schmalz said. For years he pondered how to create something that would send a bold pro-life message that wasn’t just “about the horror of abortion.”

“The idea is very difficult within a culture that, as Pope John Paul II said, we’re in a culture of death,” Schmalz said. “So, to put a sculpture called life in the center of Washington, D.C., is in a sense a peaceful weapon to persuade.”

By placing the monument in a high-traffic, public setting in Washington, D.C., Schmalz hopes his statue will not just “preach to the choir” but also touch the hearts of nonbelievers and even those who may be abortion supporters.

“Ideally, I’ll have people coming across here that might be ambiguous about their ideas of abortion, but they will come take a look at this and they will say, ‘You know, I have to say, that sculpture is beautiful,’ and if they’re saying the sculpture is beautiful, what it’s expressing is also beautiful,” Schmalz said. “If it touches one person, I think it’s done its job.”

To Schmalz, each sculpture he makes is a form of prayer that serves a specific function. As a Catholic artist, he believes that the work of faithful artists is about creating “visible ambassadors” of the faith to witness “in a culture that’s trying to remove Christianity.”

When it comes to his Life Monument, Schmalz’s depiction of the Madonna as a young, pregnant woman sends a very intentional message.

“If you look at the amount of positive life symbols out there, like even paintings of pregnant women or a new family, they’re becoming rare,” Schmalz said. “I’ve noticed over the last decade or so that we’re seeing less babies, less baby carriages, and less symbols around that. Our culture used to be filled with it. But now it’s becoming absolutely minimalized.”

This cultural shift, Schmalz believes, has led many young women to believe that having a child is something negative to be dreaded. The result of this anti-life mindset, Schmalz said, is having a devastating impact on society.

“Pope Francis said we’ve got to stop having pets and start having babies,” Schmalz said. “Elon Musk was basically suggesting the same thing, that we’re going to be in serious trouble if we don’t have babies.”

“We have to celebrate human life and that’s what this sculpture is saying,” Schmalz explained.

Schmalz is one of the most renowned Catholic artists of today. His work is displayed across the world from his “Angels Unawares” piece displaying immigrants at the Vatican to his “Homeless Jesus” in the Holy Land to a multitude of other works, religious and nonreligious, in the U.S. and beyond.

A smaller version of the National Life Monument is also on display in Rome’s Church of San Marcello al Corso. According to the statue’s website, Schmalz has plans to place life-sized copies of the National Life Monument in every state across the U.S.

A second casting of Schmalz’s “Angels Unawares,” pictured above, is also on display on Catholic University’s campus.

Father Daniel Moore, provincial superior of the U.S. Society of St. Sulpice, who presided over the dedication ceremony, explained that he hopes Schmalz’s statues will help people realize the sacredness of life and the obligation to help pregnant women, mothers, and those in need.

Schmalz, Moore said, “is using his gift of sculpting, his artistry much like the masons did when they built the great cathedrals, and then the stained glass within the cathedrals. They have become ways of communicating God’s message to us, God’s love to us, the story of how much we are cherished by God.”

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CNA Staff, Mar 27, 2020 / 12:01 pm (CNA).- Texas has said that elective surgeries, including abortions, must halt to free up medical supplies for the response to the coronavirus, but pro-abortion rights groups have filed a lawsuit challenging the order on behalf of the state’s abortion clinics.

“It is unconscionable that abortion providers are fighting against the health of Texans and withholding desperately needed supplies and personal protective equipment in favor of a procedure that they refer to as a ‘choice’,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said on Twitter March 25.

“My office will tirelessly defend Governor Abbott’s Order to ensure that necessary supplies reach the medical professionals combating this national health crisis,” he said.

There are over 1,200 cases of coronavirus in Texas, and at least a dozen people have died. While the infection is not deadly for most people, and requires hospitalization only in a minority of cases, there is still a danger of hospitals exceeding their capacity to care for new patients. Supplies are already short.

Gov. Greg Abbott issued a statewide order March 22 barring non-essential surgeries through April 21. The attorney general later said elective abortions would not be considered essential surgeries. Failure to comply with the Texas executive order could mean fines of up to $1,000 or 180 days in jail.

The lawsuit challenging the order was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas by the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood, and the Lawyering Project

“The Texas attorney general’s enforcement threats are a blatant effort to exploit a public health crisis to advance an extreme, anti-abortion agenda,” the lawsuit charged.

It argued that the ban on elective abortions does not free up hospital space or supplies of personal protective equipment to respond to the new coronavirus pandemic. Continued pregnancy would “impose far greater strains on an already taxed health care system, as prenatal care and delivery involve much greater exhaustion of hospital health care services and (supplies of personal protective equipment) than abortions.”

“Abortion is essential healthcare, and it is a time-sensitive service,” said Amy Hagstrom Miller, president of Whole Woman´s Health, the Associated Press reports. Her organization’s three Texas abortion clinics in Austin, Fort Worth, and McAllen have been forced to cancel more than 150 appointments in the last week. This has left some women “begging for the abortions they needed,” she said.

“It is shameful that our politicians are using emergency actions during a global pandemic to push their anti-abortion agenda,” Miller told reporters, the Austin American Statesman reports.

Paxton told Texas Values March 25 that the governor’s emergency order blocking medically unnecessary procedures aimed to make clear “all medical procedures that were unnecessary should be stopped, and that definitely includes elective abortions.”

“The truth is abortion, for the most part, is an elective procedure that can be done later,” he said. While he acknowledged that limiting abortion surgeries would “save some lives,” he focused his remarks on medical resources.

“I don’t even see how people who are on the other side of this issue at this time would dispute that we need our hospitals to take care of the really sick,” Paxton said.

The pro-abortion rights groups’ lawsuit further claims the order wrongly singles out abortion providers and their patients for differential treatment, compared to other medical providers and patients. The order “effectively bans abortion in Texas for the duration of the COVID-19 public health emergency,” said the lawsuit.

Delays in securing abortion for women means “attendant risks to their health, well-being, and economic security,” said the lawsuit, which argued that women should not be forced to carry a pregnancy to term against their wishes.

“COVID-19 pandemic and its fallout do not reduce patients´ needs for abortion; if anything, they make timely access to abortion even more urgent,” it said.

The lawsuit also objects to the ban on medical abortion, saying it is not surgery or a procedure. It argues that this shows the order explicitly aimed to limit abortion access.

Paxton’s initial remarks stressed the need for Texans to work together to stop the spread of the coronavirus and to “ensure that our health care professionals and facilities have all the resources they need to fight the virus at this time.”

“No one is exempt from the governor’s executive order on medically unnecessary surgeries and procedures, including abortion providers. Those who violate the governor’s order will be met with the full force of the law,” he said.

In Ohio, the state Department of Health canceled all non-essential or elective surgical abortions that use personal protective equipment. Officials said that abortion clinics were not singled out and letters of violation were also sent to a urology group that allegedly continued to perform surgeries.

Ohio’s health department asked the state attorney general to issue a cease and desist order to Preterm, a Cleveland-based abortion clinic that continues to perform elective abortions despite statewide orders against elective surgeries.

In Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves said that state directives to postpone elective and non-essential medical procedures apply to abortion. He pledged support for “whatever action we need to to protect the not only the lives of unborn children, but also the lives of anyone who may contract this particular virus,” CBS News reports.

Dr. Thomas Dobbs, the State Health Officer at the Mississippi Department of Health, said he would review the situation.

In Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Washington, where pro-abortion rights support is strong, officials have said that orders halting elective surgeries do not apply to abortions.

A March 18 joint statement from eight medical groups including the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, which tends to take pro-abortion rights stands, asserted that abortion is “an essential component of comprehensive health care.”

The groups argued that abortion is “a time-sensitive service for which a delay of several weeks, or in some cases days, may increase the risks or potentially make it completely inaccessible.” Not being able to obtain an abortion has consequences that “profoundly impact a person’s life, health, and well-being.”

On March 24, the Catholic Medical Association, along with several other medical groups, issued a statement critical of the March 18 pro-abortion rights statement.

The Catholic Medical Association statement said that abortion “generates more patients to be seen in already overburdened emergency rooms.” Abortion providers themselves instruct women to go to an emergency room if they have any concerning symptoms.

“Approximately 5% of women who undergo medication abortions will require evaluation in an emergency room, most commonly for hemorrhage,” the statement said. “Surgical abortions can also result in hemorrhage. Emergency room personnel – who are already struggling to meet the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic – will be further strained to provide care to these women.”

Some abortion providers are seeking medical supplies despite the need to fight the coronavirus.

Planned Parenthood of Keystone, Pennsylvania posted social media posts March 24 soliciting donations of personal protective equipment including hand sanitizer, home sewn masks, shoe covers, and surgical hats.

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Columbus, Ohio, Dec 27, 2018 / 11:44 am (CNA).- Republican Gov. John Kasich of Ohio on Dec. 21 vetoed a bill that would ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, but today the Republican-led Ohio House of Representatives voted 60-28 successful… […]